The use of touch-sensitive surfaces as input devices for computers and other electronic computing devices has increased significantly in recent years. Exemplary touch-sensitive surfaces include touch pads and touch screen displays. Such surfaces are widely used to display electronic documents in electronic document authoring applications to one or more users.
Exemplary user electronic documents include presentation documents (e.g., digital slide shows), word-processing documents, spreadsheet documents, desktop publishing documents, etc. Exemplary electronic document authoring applications include a drawing application, or office productivity applications such as: a presentation application (e.g., Keynote from Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.), a word-processing application (e.g., Pages from Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.), or a spreadsheet application (e.g., Numbers from Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.).
But existing methods for displaying electronic documents in electronic document authoring applications are cumbersome and inefficient. For example, in presentation applications, a user must typically specify the order in which elements of the electronic document will be displayed, and which emphasis animations, if any, will be displayed when creating a presentation document. Similarly, in a word-processing or spreadsheet application, a user is typically unable to emphasize text, images or other elements of the electronic document without editing the electronic document. However, performing such additional steps (e.g., specifying the order in which elements are displayed, selecting emphasis animations while editing the electronic document, and/or emphasizing text or images by editing the electronic document) in order to emphasize elements in the electronic document is tedious and creates a significant cognitive burden on a user when the user is preparing electronic document to present to another user or actually presenting the electronic document to another user. In addition, existing methods take longer than necessary and/or require advance preparation, thereby wasting energy. This latter consideration is particularly important in battery-operated devices.
Accordingly, there is a need for computing devices with faster, more efficient methods and interfaces for emphasizing elements of electronic documents by displaying emphasis animations for electronic documents in an electronic document authoring application. Such methods and interfaces may complement or replace conventional methods for emphasizing elements of electronic documents in an electronic document authoring application. Such methods and interfaces reduce the cognitive burden on a user and produce a more efficient human-machine interface. For battery-operated computing devices, such methods and interfaces conserve power and increase the time between battery charges.